Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green isn't one to bite his tongue. The former Defensive Player of the Year voiced out his displeasure over Shaquille O'Neal and the rest of the Inside the NBA crew's double-standard take on the Sacramento Kings's former star DeMarcus Cousins.
For context, Shaq, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Ernie Johnson had a lengthy discussion on Sacramento's inability to build a playoff-caliber squad over the last decade and a half after the Kings lost to the Miami Heat, 118-110, on Thursday night. After Ernie Johnson took a shot at Shaq for having a minority stake at the Kings, the Hall of Famer argued that they were still young and building toward the future. That's when Charles Barkley pointed that that they've been rebuilding for over a decade now.
O'Neal reasoned that the players they had over the past 10-plus seasons did not produce, then dropped the name of former Kings star DeMarcus Cousins, saying they never made the postseason with him leading the squad. This drew the ire of the Warriors defensive anchor, as Green called out the 4-time NBA champion on Twitter.
Demarcus cousins produced in SAC big fella @SHAQ … once again they never want to blame the organization.
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) February 19, 2021
Here is a snippet of the conversation that Green was responding to, as laid out by Ali Thanawalla of Yahoo Sports:
“The lottery picks have been in and out,” Shaq said. “Play has been inconsistent. Listen, they're still young.”
“Shaq, we've been saying that for 10 years,” Barkley said.
“Denver's young, Philly's young, Utah's young,” Smith said, eluding to teams that have winning records or are at the top of the NBA standings.
“De'Aaron Fox is the franchise player,” Shaq said. “We have to build around him.”
“But all them other guys been there before he got there,” Barkley said.
“And listen. They wasn't producing,” Shaq responded. “DeMarcus Cousins was there and we never made the playoffs, so like you said Kenny, I kind of agree with you, we need some young talent and some older talent that mess together.”
In connection to Green's call out to Shaq, the 3-time All-Star previously went on a lengthy NSFW-filled tirade about the NBA's double-standards on players and teams. Among his qualms included teams not holding themselves accountable when they don't succeed and instead put the blame on their players.
Green does have a point with this. Sacramento failed to take advantage of having an All-NBA center as their franchise player and never surrounded him with enough talent to succeed, much less, be competitive in the loaded Western Conference. In the six and a half seasons Cousins played in Sactown, the Kings never finished with a winning record. Their highest win total in the DeMarcus Cousins era came in the 2015-16 season, where Sacramento won just 33 games. Judging by their draft picks and their transaction history, it's hard to argue that they could have done a better job surrounding Boogie with better talent.
So, yes, talk your talk, Draymond Green.
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